Ms Rivers famously won season 2 of Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice in 2009.

Fellow funnywoman Sarah Silverman tweeted Friday: 'Jesus Christ, Joan. You can't be in the hospital - you have work to do! This is BULL****.'

High praise: Donald Trump, who met Joan Rivers on Season 2 of Celebrity Apprentice, which the E! presenter won in 2009, called the 81-year-old a dear friend and an amazing woman

Heartfelt: Charlie Sheen joined the chorus of well-wishers, urging Rivers to come back to us

Sources close to Rivers have said that the television host is reliant on machines to stay alive and that the family will have to decide in the next few days whether or not to turn the machines off.

It is hoped that the star, who was put into a medically induced coma after she went into cardiac and respiratory arrest during routine surgery on Thursday, will then bounce back and recover her full health.

Sources told TMZ that no decisions will be made on Rivers' health for at least a couple of days.

The comic's daughter, Melissa rushed to her mother's side on Thursday after flying from LA to New York.

The star remained in a serious condition in a New York City hospital on Friday, one day after going into cardiac arrest at a doctor's office during a routine procedure.

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Melissa Rivers is said to be an 'emotional wreck' as she waits for news of her mother's condition on Friday. She is pictured on Thursday, with 13-year-old son Cooper (left), after rushing to the airport in LA to catch a flight to NYC to be with her mother who had been placed in a medically induced coma

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The 81-year-old's daughter Melissa, seen here with her mom last year, is in New York and at her mother's bedside at Mount Sinai Hospital

A source told the New York Daily News that Melissa, an only child, is staying at her Upper East Side apartment in the same building where her mother lives as she struggles to cope with her mother's health emergency.

Friends are helping care for Melissa's 13-year-old son Cooper who flew with her from LA. Earlier on Thursday they were pictured at Los Angeles airport as they traveled to be by the star's side.

Melissa, 46, released a statement today thanking everyone for their messages of support and gave a brief update on her mother's condition.

She said: 'My mother would be so touched by the tributes and prayers that we have received from around the world.

'Her condition remains serious but she is receiving the best treatment and care possible. We ask that you continue to keep her in your thoughts as we pray for her recovery.'

Joan Rivers is 'resting comfortably' in a medically induced coma just hours after she performed a typically acerbic show in Manhattan and joked about her own death.

She was rushed from an Upper East Side clinic to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition on Thursday morning at 9.40am after she stopped breathing during a routine medical procedure.

A picture of health only the day before, Rivers accepted a bouquet of flowers from a fan as she finished her stand-up performance at around 9.30pm on Wednesday.

The entertainment legend even posed for pictures with a fan on the way out of the Laurie Beechman Theatre, only to suffer respiratory failure less than twelve hours later during surgery on her throat.

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Thank you: Joan Rivers accepts a bouquet of flowers from a fan after wrapping up her one hour performance at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on Wednesday night at around 9.30pm

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Busy as always: Joan Rivers is pictured here at a press event in New York City on Wednesday evening for her book, Diary of a Mad Diva. She is currently in a medically induced coma at Mount Sinai Hospital after she stopped breathing during vocal cord surgery

While doctors are said to be keen to keep her in a coma until the weekend, there is concern about the length of time her brain was starved of oxygen.

But less than 12 hours before she stopped breathing, Rivers was her usual irrepressible self, making jokes about her own longevity and mortality to an audience of around 100.

'She did a joke onstage, she goes, ‘I’m 81 — I could go at any moment,’ said Shade Rupe, 45.

‘I could fall over right here and you all could say, ''I was there!’

Rupe, who spoke to the New York Daily News, said that Rivers' comedy was as quick-witted as it has always been.

'She was so on,' he said. 'If you had me guess her age, I’d say she was in her 50s. She didn’t miss a step, she didn’t go ditzy, she didn’t forget anything and her timing was amazing.'

Rupe grabbed a picture with the star outside the theater and said that Rivers 'looked fantastic.'

And, as testament to the television host's vigor, Rivers was even promoting her book, Diary of a Mad Diva, before she took to the stage on Wednesday.

Rivers, who has been a fixture on American television since the mid-1960s, was her forthright self according to those who were at the press meet.

When she walked in to take her seat, said Shira Blum, an online project manager, 'She seemed totally healthy. She was very energetic, hilarious, funny. And it was such a shock, a surprise to hear the news this morning.'

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Star: Joan Rivers (pictured here in 2012 at the New York Fashion Week) has been a fixture of American life for more than 50 years and she is celebrated for her acerbic wit

Rivers took questions and said she wakes up every morning and 'is thankful that everything works,' Blum added.

The entertainer has logged a half-century in showbusiness and gave rise to red-carpet commentary - and the snarky criticism that often accompanies it. Her signature red carpet query: "Who are you wearing?"

She continues to maintain a busy schedule, and was to perform a show Friday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. That show was postponed because of her hospitalization.

'She’s not conscious, but she’s stable,' said the comedian's aide Graham Reed, to the New York Daily News, which reported the star was in a coma.

'This morning, Joan Rivers was taken to The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where she is being attended to,' Sid Dinsay, a spokesman for the hospital, said in a statement this afternoon.

'Her family wants to thank everybody for their outpouring of love and support.'

He said the hospital would provide an update on Rivers' condition as it becomes available.

A source told E! News earlier: 'They were putting a scope down her throat to check her vocal cords. She stopped breathing.'

The source added that the operation was not a major one though Rivers was sedated throughout. It's unclear what medication was used.

TV host Billy Bush said on Facebook that he had exchanged texts with Joan's daughter Melissa who asked him to 'please pray'.

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Hospital: NYPD officers wait outside of the main entrance to Mount Sinai hospital on Thursday

He wrote: 'Praying for Joan Rivers who is in critical condition at Mt Sinai hospital in NY. Texted with Melissa Rivers who said 'please pray.' Already doing that. Joan is beloved around here. A regular guest on Access Hollywood Live she never fails to deliver.

'She taped her post Emmy special Tuesday in LA and was strong. This is out of nowhere. Come on Joan you have to make it. Just think of all the material. Sending love and prayers.'

He later tweeted: 'Per Melissa, The mighty @joan_rivers Is in stable condition. That Means her first joke is coming... :)'

Stars took to Twitter to express their shock and to wish Rivers and her family well at this difficult time.

Rivers also recently took part in the ASL ice Bucket Challenge not once but three times after celebrities Anne Hathaway, Sarah Jessica Parker and Tara Reid nominated her.

She was to perform a show Friday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. That show was postponed because of her hospitalization.

The host of 'Fashion Police' on E! network, Rivers also presides over an online talk show, 'In Bed With Joan' and co-stars with her daughter, Melissa, on the WEtv reality show, 'Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?'

Her latest book, Diary of a Mad Diva, was released this summer.

In 2009, Rivers emerged as the winner of NBC's 'The Celebrity Apprentice.'

A documentary, 'Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,' premiered in theaters in 2010.

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School: This is the yearbook photograph of Joan Rivers from 1948 while she attended the Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn

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Obvious talent: Then known as Joan Sandra Molinsky, Joan Rivers was already known for her wit and intelligence while at school as this yearbook posting proves

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Comic legend: Rivers is seen here around 1965. She has been a staple of American culture for half a century

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Comic legend: Rivers is seen left and right on the Ed Sullivan show in 1966. The comic is renowened for her acerbic wit

Glamor: Joan Rivers is seen left and right in full 1980s glamor, big hair and all

She gave rise to red carpet commentary - and the snarky criticism that often accompanies it. Her signature red carpet query: 'Who are you wearing?'

The often outspoken funny lady - born Joan Alexandra Molinsky - started her career in her native New York performing in comedy clubs across the city and even starred in a play as a lesbian woman with a crush Barbara Streisand in the 1950s.

'Somebody said, "You can make six dollars standing up in a club,"' she told the Associated Press in 2013, 'and I said, "Here I go!" It was better than typing all day.'

Joan started to make a name for herself in the male-dominated comedy world as a guest on The Tonight Show from 1965.

Rivers was a smash on her first booking on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. 'God, you're funny,' Carson told her.

She also started landing guest spots on The Ed Sullivan Show. Taken under the wing of Johnny Carson as a writer, Joan further developed her biting wit.

Going on to host Saturday Night Live during the Eighties, the iconic star was awarded her show by for The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers - it was this show that led to a bitter fallout with her mentor Carson and he never spoke to her again before his death.

Only this year was Joan's ban from ever appearing on the Tonight Show lifted by Jimmy Fallon.

The comedian would eventually be fired from her Fox show after she challenged executives' decision to removed her husband Edgar Rosenberg as a producer.

Edgar was the star's second husband - her first marriage was annulled after just a few months in 1955 - and he tragically committed suicide three months later in May 1987, Joan blamed the 'humiliation' of Fox's treatment.

<< about her second husband Edgar's suicide. "It was very chic. It was the
80s," >>

<<A week after the death, she recalls, she took
Melissa out to an expensive restaurant and, looking at the menu, Rivers
said: "If daddy were alive and he could see these prices, he'd kill
himself all over again.">>

dang, they joked about at her Roast too. <<Tom Arnold
cracked on Rivers' late husband, who took his own life 22 years ago.
"Joan can be a bit of a perfectionist," Arnold said. "When she read her
husband's suicide note, she sent it back for a rewrite.">>

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